Francis Lawrence Talks Philip Seymour Hoffman

When the world loses someone as respected and beloved in his craft as Phillip Seymour Hoffman, the central issue is never and should never be the question of what will happen to the films he was working on when he died. As time continues on, however, and everyone must go back to work, that question will undoubtedly come to the forefront. And while we do know a bit about how Mockingjay will be dealing with Hoffman's death, we haven't heard much from the behind the scenes of what losing him meant to the cast and crew. That is, until Mockingjay director Francis Lawrence — who also directed Hoffman in Catching Fire — spoke out about the loss in a recent interview with USA Today:

It was obviously very rough for all of us. He was a friend. He was an amazing actor, an iconic actor. He was someone I really looked up to… We shut down for a day to give people time to deal with the sudden shock of it all. And to try and sort of figure things out a little bit. …We as a cast and crew definitely honored him. We gathered everyone together and had a big moment for him. We still think about him every day. It’s hard not to imagine him being here. It’s something so sudden, so shocking.

He also spoke about the incompleteness of Hoffman's filming, saying “We’re still figuring that out."

This isn't the first time a major production has dealt with loss. Following Heath Ledger's 2008 death, for example, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which he was filming at the time, halted production and then, later, brought in Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell to finish the film in different incarnations of the role.

Hopefully the cast and crew of Mockingjay has had time to heal, but surely nothing will ever be able to replace Hoffman as an actor, and more importantly, as a friend.